Transnational crime booming worth $870 billion, says UN

International crime generates a whopping $870 billion, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in a recent report titled 'The Globalisation of Crime'.

| TNN | Updated: Jul 27, 2012, 20:05 IST

International crime generates a whopping $870 billion, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in a recent report titled 'The Globalisation of Crime'. This is equal to about half of India's gross domestic product (GDP) and about 1.5 per cent of global GDP.

Included in this estimation are drug trafficking, smuggling of migrants, human trafficking, money-laundering, trafficking in firearms, counterfeit goods, wildlife and cultural property, and some aspects of cybercrime. Domestic crime, that is crime within a nation's borders with no transnational connections, is not included in these estimates which are mostly based on 2009 data.

"Organized crime has globalized and turned into one of the world's foremost economic and armed powers," said Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) at the launch of the report.

Drug trafficking continues to be the most lucrative form of business for criminals, with an estimated annual value of $320 billion. In 2009, UNODC placed the approximate annual worth of the global cocaine and opiate markets alone at $85 billion and $68 billion, respectively.

Human trafficking in which men, women and children are used as products for sexual or labour-based exploitation is also a big money spinner. While figures vary, an estimate from the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2005 indicated the number of victims of trafficking at any given time to be around 2.4 million, with annual profits of about $32 billion, according to the UNODC report. Recent research on overall forced labour trends however would suggest that the scope of the problem is much bigger.

Smuggling of migrants is a well-organized business moving people around the globe through criminal networks, groups and routes. Migrants can be offered a "smuggling package" by organized crime groups, and the treatment they get along the route corresponds to the price they pay to their smugglers. Every year this trade is valued at billions of dollars. In 2009 some $6.6 billion was generated through the illegal

smuggling of 3 million migrants from Latin America to North America,8 while the previous year 55,000 migrants were smuggled from Africa into Europe for a sum of $150 million.

Illicit trading in firearms brings in around $170 million to $320 million annually

Trafficking in natural resources includes the smuggling of raw materials such as diamonds and rare metals (often from conflict zones). The trafficking of timber in South-East Asia generates annual revenues of $3.5 billion.

The illegal trade in wildlife is another lucrative business for organized criminal groups, with poachers targeting skins and body parts for export to foreign markets. Trafficking in

elephant ivory, rhino horn and tiger parts from Africa and South-East Asia to Asia produces $75 million in criminal profits each year and threatens the existence of some species. According to the WWF, traffickers illegally move over 100 million tons of fish, 1.5 million live birds and 440,000 tons of medicinal plants per year.

The sale of fraudulent medicines from Asia, in particular to South-East Asia and Africa to the value of $1.6 billion.

Cybercrime encompasses several areas, but one of the most profitable for criminals is identity theft, which generates around $1 billion each year. People become victims of identity theft, with 1.5 million people each year being caught out.

As an integral part of transnational organized crime, it is estimated that some 70 per cent of illicit profits are likely to have been laundered through the financial system. Yet less than 1 per cent of those laundered proceeds are intercepted and confiscated.

"Criminals are motivated by profit: so let us go after their money," said Mr. Costa. "We must increase the risks and lower the incentives that enable the bloody hand of organized crime to manipulate the invisible hand of competition," said Mr. Costa. He called for more robust implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, more effective anti-money laundering measures, and a crackdown on bank secrecy.

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